Current job title: Executive
Assistant
Industry: Healthcare Research Services
Department: Health Solutions Division
Years worked in this industry: 10
Years worked in this department: 10
Special training or attributes needed or helpful to
get job in this industry (or specific department): I was
hired because I passed all the tests they gave me in Excel, Word, and
typing, plus I had a record of staying with companies for a long time, not
flitting here and there. I had never worked in this industry. I had
previously worked as a sales administrator/trade show coordinator and
prior to that had worked in accounting and purchasing for city government.
I was [mid 40s] when they hired me [a decade ago].
In this case they were looking for someone a little older who was more
stable than the [younger admins] they hired who didn’t have as much experience
or maturity. They were experiencing high turnover rates and were hoping to
find a way to alleviate that trend. And I was just getting my degree
at the time….27 years in the making. That was not a requirement for this
position but it IS a company with highly degreed people in it so it didn’t
hurt.
Number of
managers and/or staff supported: 1 VP [a wonderful person], 1 director and three
practice area leaders. I also “support” the staff who fall under the
practice areas that I support. The managers I support and the kind
of work I do changes constantly. The key is to be flexible, willing, and
to have a sense of humor.
Typical work hours: We have flex time
here but for support personnel it’s helpful to normally work from 8:00 AM
to 5:00 PM. Many of us eat at our desks, working through lunch.
Weekends or overtime hours: I have one
busy week where financials come out and I put together eight big reports.
During that week I can easily work 10-12 hour days anywhere from two to
four days that week. But since we go by a PTO (paid time off) system, I
can use those overtime hours (not paid for literally since I’m salaried)
against time taken off any time during the month for vacation, doctor
appointments, long lunches, errands, etc. So I don’t mind working them.
It’s nice to have the flexibility to take time off if it’s slow, and to
work however many hours as needed when there’s a time crunch, yet know I’m
not being taken advantage of. Sometimes I end up giving extra hours to the
company in a month but it’s okay because I am treated well here.
I can come in on a weekend if I want. We can
work just about any hours we want; we have key cards that let us into the
building. There have been a few times I’ve done that because there are no
interruptions – can do 8 hours work in 3 hours. But that’s rare.
General salary range
(Note: This is a general figure or range provided by survey respondent and may
NOT be an exact salary in order to
give survey respondent some privacy. Also you must take into account that
the number of years worked in industry/department may contribute to this
salary as well as criteria such as level of position and person reports
to, required hours and geographical location.): $43,000 -
$60,000
Benefits (direct or indirect): We have
excellent benefits. The company pays 5% into our 401Ks whether or not we
contribute. We can invest in a standard 401K or a Roth 401K or split it
between the two. We can opt for a brokerage account in our
401K for more control over how our “retirement” money is invested.
We have excellent medical benefits. As a single woman I
only pay $60/month for my share of an excellent health policy (PPO). We
get several choices each year and may change from year to year: HMO, PPO,
and straight BCBS. We get dental insurance, no cost. We get short term disability
insurance and long term disability insurance, no cost. We have the option
of paying the taxes on the long term disability ourselves so that if we
ever need to go on long term disability we will get the entire amount each
month tax free. I do that and that costs me about $14 a month. We can buy
long term care insurance at a low cost. We have the medical
reimbursement account option where you can budget pre-tax money to be
taken out of your paycheck to pay for medical related items the next year:
prescriptions, co-pays at the doctor, eyeglasses, contacts, orthotics,
etc.
We get 6 paid holidays per year. We get 3 paid “floating” holidays per
year: we choose what that holiday is (can be 3 days vacation). If you’ve
worked here under 10 years you also get 24 PTO days to be used for
vacation, sick time, any time at all. After 10 years you get 28 days PTO
time. I believe it goes to 31 days after 15 years. If you don’t use all
the PTO time in one year it rolls over to the next year. In November you
can sell back up to 10 days for cash (nice to use for holidays) and, or,
sell back up to 10 days to use the next year to pay for all the
deductibles out of your paycheck like insurances, medical reimbursement
account.
Lingo you might hear in this industry:
I can’t think of any industry-specific lingo that we use. The healthcare
field is pretty much in the public eye, particularly in this day and age
and I think most people are familiar with the terms used.
A typical day on the job: Very busy. In
this company, in our particular division, a management assistant’s or
executive assistant’s duties depend on her boss’s area of expertise. In my
case, when I first came to work here...I “learned” a lot about corporate quality
issues as [that was my boss' area]. He then became a division director and I
began maintaining a lot of Excel spreadsheets, something
that is still the mainstay of my particular job even though my “main” boss
has changed twice since then. I’m good at it and so my job, instead of
evolving with my boss, has evolved as the main thing I do regardless of
who my boss is. In addition to being a spreadsheet queen (some quite
elaborate) I also manage the paperwork involved with the independent
contractors we hire, including making sure that they get their invoices in
to us on time so that we can include them in our invoices. I also create
documents related to bid and proposal work and project initiation.
Although I have certain tasks I’m responsible for (those IPRs for
instance), I get tasks every day from my emails and from people dropping
by or calling. I may be asked to do travel, create a project initiation
form, make changes to a project initiation form, create the various sets
of paperwork needed to hire an independent contractor or a consultant, set
up a meeting (reserve a room and send electronic invitations), create a
purchase order for anything: software, adding hours to a contractor’s
agreement, office supplies. I might register staff for conferences or
training, create any one of a myriad of financial reports, pull financial
reports from any one of the numerous electronic recordkeeping systems we
have, post information to any one of the numerous online databases we
keep, scan Federal health databases for opportunities, Fedex something,
mail something else, do research on the latest health issues. (whew! I’m
tired already!)
Positive things about being an administrative
professional in this industry: Management assistants and
executive assistants get a lot of respect in our company. I can’t speak
for the professional services industry in general because this is the
first company I’ve worked for in this industry. We are certainly well paid
in this ‘industry.’ I think that may be because of the high level of
education in the industry in general. You have to be smart enough to keep
up with these people!
MA’s and EA’s are the “go-to” people in this company. We know everything,
we can fix anything, we can help with just about any problem. We are
needed and we’re not taken for granted.
Negative things about being an administrative
professional in this industry: Well, although it might seem
that I’m contradicting myself, in some ways support staff don’t get the
same recognition as the technical staff. Although well paid, we reach the
top of our pay rather quickly. There’s not much of a ‘growth path’ for us
whereas there is for a technical person (analyst or software engineer for
example). I have broached this subject with my current “main” boss,
suggesting something like a “Business Management Assistant” and he has
said that he will say something to human resources about it and mention
that I am willing to do the research about such a position. We’ll see if
that happens. Of course the position that I have in mind relates to what I
do. I only made executive assistant by pushing it. I had to show my boss
at that time that our division was the only one who hadn’t promoted their
management assistants to executive assistants, and that I fulfilled the
qualifications and was doing the work of an executive assistant. Again, we
do so much work that’s behind the scenes; managers often don’t realize how
much we do to keep the organization running smoothly unless we point it
out in some way. They don’t mean to take it for granted, but it happens.
Technical staff work on projects so it’s apparent when they do a job well
or not.
To say more regarding the pay levels: I have a bachelors degree and some
classes in business at the masters degree level, as much or more than some
of the technical staff, but I can’t make the money that they make. My
current boss made the comment to someone in contracting that he’d lost his
right arm the week I went on vacation, so that shows my value but since my
work is charged to overhead it doesn’t show up as helping the bottom line
like a project charge does. That means I’m also not eligible for the
“marketing” bonuses that technical staff regularly get when they work on
projects that get follow on work. Follow on work speaks to the fact that
the staff did a good job that resulted in getting the follow on work. I may
support the staff who get the bonuses but I don’t get a cut. There are
many little ways like that that technical staff have of getting extra
bonuses that MA’s and EA’s don’t qualify for because we’re support staff.
Type of workspace/office:
cubicle ---surrounded by high
level managers – (but highest level cubicles
made and with a wonderful ergonomic chair and pull out ergonomic
keyboard tray etc.)
Building is ‘green’
---has windows all around on all floors so that there’s lots of
natural light, as well as state of the art interior lighting.
Altarum also
won a landscaping award for its ecological planning. To that effect we get
lots of geese, ducks, birds, and frogs around us even though we are pretty
much in the city.
Primary responsibilities as an administrative
professional in this position: I’ve probably already
mentioned them but I’ll put them in order of importance:
Produce the In Process Reviews for the corporation and for (currently)
seven practice areas
Manage the independent contractors and consultants for our division
Tracking opportunities to go after, using three separate websites that list
such opportunities. I sift through them and send the ones that look
promising to my boss and to practice area leaders.
Create the documents that ensure that our projects, proposals, and such
get into the contracts and accounting systems.
Arrange for travel and create travel folders that contain the electronic
tickets, first boarding pass, a travel request voucher (also sent to the
traveler electronically), directions to the hotel if it’s a new one or in
a new location, directions to a client site….hotel amenities….anything
that will make the travel easier for the traveler.
Top thing(s) incumbent admin would require of job
applicants seeking to be her/his position replacement:
Intelligence, flexibility, sense of humor. Technically: strong spreadsheet
skills and an ability to learn quickly and adapt endlessly. Not afraid of
learning high tech skills.
Office machines or equipment operated regularly:
Computer mostly, fax rarely, a variety of printers and copiers: black and
white and color – do a lot of paper jam fixes and toner replacement for
users.
Technology (hard) skills used regularly:
Excel, excel, excel! Performing research on the internet. We have many
electronic databases that we use for human resource items: marketing
bonuses, choosing our benefits yearly. We have a database for everything
in Lotus Notes: forms, policies, social, WIGS (wildly important goals),
projects, management. Everything that goes on in our company has a
database where you can access the information. Finding which database
contains what you need can be a challenge and recently we’ve been moving
toward internet accessible databases. We are a very tech-oriented company.
The ability to write well is also necessary. Because we have offices in
various locations a lot of our communication is done via email. It’s a
real skill to create an email that is clear, concise and that will be read
and understood.
Critical soft skills: Ah, this is a
critical area for my job and for any of our MA or EA jobs. We interact and
support so many people we have to learn how each person operates and work
differently for each of those people. I interact differently with not only
my bosses but with staff in accounting and contracts. Because I do a lot
of business with accounting and contracts I need to know how to best get what I need from
each of those departments and the people who work in them. I also have to
know what they need from me and what level of importance certain items are
for them.
A must is the ability to prioritize when you have so many people who need
stuff from you. It’s not necessarily who is most important, it’s a
combination of who and what is important, timeframes, personalities, etc.
Being a good psychologist is a valuable skill. Being intuitive and
empathetic also helps.
Communication is always important but no matter how often that is said, it
still doesn’t get used effectively. In emails you have to learn to be
succinct and then you still usually have to follow up with a phone call.
Everyone receives so much information these days that we are all
overloaded with ‘communication.’ Each person who contacts me feels that
they are the only one asking something of me and it’s of utmost importance
to them that it is done NOW. It takes tact and good planning to try to
keep everyone happy and not exhaust oneself in the process. That’s why if
you are a likeable and good natured person who can come through much of
the time you will be able to make people happy even when you can’t
accommodate them as quickly as they would like to be accommodated.
Pace of this position: fast
Geographical region: Upper Midwest U.S.
